Keir’s speedy shuffle ‘took the shine off party gains’
SIR Keir Starmer has been accused of overshadowing Labour’s local election successes by reshuffling his shadow cabinet too hastily.
The party leader wielded the axe after it surrendered control of eight English councils, suffered its worst ever results in Scotland and lost to the Tories in a by-election for the Hartlepool seat it had held since 1974.
But Labour also made gains in Wales and beat Conservative incumbents in mayoral races in the West of England and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
And Sir Keir found himself facing a backlash after it emerged that his elected deputy Angela Rayner would be removed from her role as party chair in his shake-up.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who increased his majority as Liverpool City Region colleague Steve Rotheram also won re-election, said: ‘I didn’t like the way it was handled.
‘I didn’t see why we were getting a negative story on Saturday when myself, Steve Rotheram and other people around the country had good victories to celebrate. That wasn’t right.
‘I don’t think the way Angela was treated was right but it’s been resolved and we move on.’
Meanwhile, the party leader’s allies accused Ms Rayner and her supporters of stirring up trouble.
‘We could have spent the last day celebrating the much better results in Wales and elsewhere if Angela’s people hadn’t decided to try and blow the party up over who runs what bits of Labour HQ,’ a source told The Guardian.
Sir Keir yesterday belatedly tweeted congratulatory messages to Labour’s winning candidates – including the party’s first West of England mayor Dan Norris – amid criticism he had been slow to do so.
He told a meeting of the new-look shadow cabinet that the scale of the defeats elsewhere showed ‘the size of the journey’ the party needs to embark on to regain power.
And he stressed that he took full responsibility for the setbacks, saying: ‘It is entirely on me.’
He also said Ms Rayner had ‘ a big role, taking the fight to the Tories’, amid reports of arguments over what her new post of shadow Cabinet Office minister would involve.
Anneliese Dodds will take over as party chair after being replaced as shadow chancellor by Rachel Reeves in the reshuffle.